Heroes are not always role models

Monday

Oct 15, 2012 at 6:00 AMOct 15, 2012 at 7:42 AM

Clive McFarlane

Jim Thorpe, Jackie Robinson, Jesse Owens and Muhammad Ali are among my sports heroes, modern-day gladiators who can raise our spirits, when we are weighed down with life’s many burdens, and who can make us believe and keep faith in the greatness that is often obscured by our perceived limitations.

I still believe in sports heroes, but it is getting more difficult to keep that faith because too many of our current-day heroes are turning out to be nothing but high-priced snake oil salesmen.

Lance Armstrong, a seven-time winner of the Tour de France and founder and chairman of the Lance Armstrong Foundation for cancer support, is one of the latter.

His story is legendary. In 1996, testicular cancer that had spread to his brain and lungs arrested his early cycling career, but he recovered to continue cycling, winning the Tour de France each year from 1999 to 2005. His community work was just as stout.

The Lance Armstrong Foundation he founded in 1997 is currently a $500 million charity organization. Built primarily through the sales of yellow Livestrong bracelets, the organization has aided and benefited millions of cancer patients in their battle with the disease.

The United States Anti-Doping Agency is now telling us, however, that Mr. Armstrong’s individual and community accomplishments were built on steroids.

According to the agency, not only did Mr. Armstrong take steroids, but he was also the central figure in a sophisticated doping program that provided steroids to other members of his cycling team and engaged in a series of methods to avoid detection.

The agency has stripped Mr. Armstrong of his seven Tour de France titles and has barred him for life from participating in the sport.

Mr. Armstrong did not challenge the USADA decision, but he continues to deny he ever took banned substances in his career.

Interestingly, the disclosure that Mr. Armstrong might have cheated his way to greatness has not unleashed the public outrage that has accompanied the fall of other athletes, such as those caught up in the baseball steroids scandal. His major sponsors, for example, have not been in a rush to abandon him just yet.

Some have speculated that his work with his cancer foundation might be what is tempering public reaction.

Doug Ulman, chief executive director and president of the Lance Armstrong Foundation, told an AP reporter that he was banking on Mr. Armstrong’s work with the cancer center offsetting any negative fallout from his athletic failure.

“His leadership role doesn’t change,” Mr. Ulman reportedly said.

“He’s the founder. He’s our biggest advocate and always will be. People with cancer feel ownership of the brand. It was created for them.”

I am happy he feels that way, but I worry we are losing something bigger here.

Peter Howard, owner of Barney’s Bicycle, a family business that operates a store for used bikes and service repairs at 165 Chandler St, and its main store for new bike sales at 582 Park Ave, said he senses a resignation among the cycling community to Mr. Armstrong’s fall.

He noted that Tyler Hamilton, a former teammate of Mr. Armstrong and an accomplished cyclist and Olympic gold medal winner from Marblehead, suffered a similar fate, admitting to the use of banned substances in 2011. He was subsequently stripped of his gold medal.

“We have seen a number of our great heroes fall, and I think there is some resignation setting in. People are getting a little numb.”

We can only hope another hero will come along to make us believe again.